I grew up in a commune where no one considered me female, particularly.

My brother and I were meditating before we were 6 years old, having to stare at the wall and chant.

The songs become the show, which is how it should be.

I don't have the inclinations that other people seem to have as far as the business is concerned.

The songs keep on writing themselves, and I really love them. It's as close as I get to a religion.

I don't like what the radio plays for the most part.

MP3's are perfect.

We need a day of the dead. That's a perfect celebration.

I guess I'll just slip into the studio after the next time with the Muses, and then just keel over and die.

I felt like it was a great secret when I found out that I could be in my 30s.

Nirvana was pop. You can have distorted guitars and people say it's alternative, but you can't break out of pop music's constructs and still get extensive radio play and media coverage.

Good taste - that's all you really need when you're playing an instrument.

If you're the band leader you ask more of yourself than anyone else, so they tend to raise the bar for me.

To do it nationally or internationally, you have to follow a few more rules.

I would go to radio stations and they were supposed to be interviewing me and playing my record and they would say, We're playing too many women right now, we can't play your record.

Most of the younger people I knew didn't seem to have a handle on things; they hadn't found their place, they didn't understand how the world works, they didn't understand how to treat other people, and they didn't know how to stop thinking about themselves.

That's my dream job, to be able to mail songs out to people who want to hear them. Paste my face on them and not travel all over the world trying to sell them.

Before you can make good music, you just have to shut up. Then the music can say what it has to say.

We didn't really swallow much of the Jesus thing, but we got the vocab.

I don't like the idea of famous people.

My parents didn't treat me as if there was anything in the world I couldn't do, except be unkind.

I grew up in a commune where no one considered me female, particularly.

I've always chosen my band members based on their sense of humor. It might sound stupid, but it means not only are they fun to live with on a tour bus for years, but humor implies intelligence.

I'm beginning to think I have two years encountering sexism without really realising it.

Men are allowed to write songs about people and women are allowed to write songs about women.

I don't mind what the market is, but why is it vapid? If they're such a bunch of idiots, why don't you show them good music instead? They're not going to know the difference.

You have to follow every melodic line, every emotional idea, or you don't get your money's worth.

I have to play as much of the game as I allow myself to get the music heard. But it's not unlike the rest of the world, so I'm not as up in arms about it as I could be.

Popular music sucks so bad right now.

To write a good song, an artist has to drawn from reality. There has to be some spark from realism that communicates a real feeling to someone else. You have to be real. Or you have to be a really good storyteller.

There is an attraction for you which does not exist for me, since I do not feel any pleasure. You see, we are making a bargain. You give me a dream, I give you joy. But all this is not love.

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten but they may start a winning game.

I realize that I'm not going to be doing interviews for the cover of 'GQ' for the rest of my life, know what I mean? I'm on TV because I play basketball really well.

Though I have tremendous support from lots of people, there are so many others waiting to tear me down.

When you feel an audience engaged and surprised and enthusiastic, reacting to what you've planned, that is the reward. It's better than the Emmys.

You can't get married to any one particular plan. That is the biggest lesson I learned at PayPal.

I'm a very direct person just generally. I don't use a lot of words unnecessarily. I try to get to the heart of the issue, address it and go on to the next thing.

When AIDS first appeared, people didn't know what it was. You'll remember that it affected mostly young gay men - it was actually called GRID for a short period of time: Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Syndrome - and people thought it actually might be recreational drugs or other types of toxins.

Nudity is natural but not until a person accepts and loves who they are.

It's been so long since I was in a real fight.

You should always speak your mind, and be bold, and be obnoxious, and do whatever you want and don't let anybody tell you to stop it.

I perfectly understood President Obama's attitude throughout the French presidential campaign. He had no reason to distance himself from Nicolas Sarkozy. It's the basic solidarity that leaders who worked together owe to each other.

I don't shy from controversy. I'm telling stories, and I'll tell whatever story seems like it wants to be told.

I love traveling. I love just going about on my own, feeling I have no roots.

Getting out any weekly magazine requires many hours of reading, choosing, discarding, and thinking beyond the obvious.

I think the hardest to replace has been Johnny Collins. He was great to play with. You could always rely on him to be available for a short pass, allowing you time to clear a ball. He would never give the ball away.

Dear Lover Your laughter is warm rain and you are the rainbow.

We don't put our emotions out there in Japan. I'm Japanese, but I love to be honest.

The West has been able to bring Afghanistan a much better health service, better education, better roads, a better economy, though some have benefited more; some have benefited less from that economic well-being in Afghanistan.